The horrifying methods Russian officers are using to torture and kill their OWN men: Refusing orders or getting wounded is punished with fights to the death, ‘execution shootings’ and other extreme cruelties

Russian commanders are executing, torturing and sending to their deaths soldiers who refuse to fight in Ukraine, according to a damning new investigation that exposes a campaign of terror within Vladimir Putin’s army.

Independent Russian outlet Verstka found evidence that men who disobey orders are being shot, tortured or forced into suicide missions, as commanders resort to extreme measures to stamp out dissent and stop troops retreating from the front.

The probe uncovered reports of blocking units stationed behind Russian lines to prevent retreats – with soldiers being killed by their own side if they tried to flee.

Witnesses said commanders had appointed ‘execution shooters’ to open fire on refusers, later dumping their bodies in shallow graves or rivers and registering them as killed in action.

In some cases, officers allegedly used drones and explosives to ‘finish off’ wounded or retreating soldiers, even ordering drone operators to drop grenades on their comrades to disguise the killings as battlefield strikes.

Others who disobeyed orders were thrown into pits covered with metal grates, doused with water and beaten for hours or days.

Some were reportedly forced into ‘gladiator-style’ fights to the death, witnesses told investigators. The fights were sometimes filmed and circulated as warnings to others. 

One such case appeared in a video circulated in May 2025 by Ukrainian groups monitoring Russian forces. 

The footage shows two shirtless men in a pit as a voice off-camera says: ‘Commander Kama basically said whoever beats the other one to death gets out of the pit.’

The men begin to fight as the voice continues to taunt them – ‘Finish him off already, what are you waiting for?’ – until one collapses motionless on the ground.

Verstka said it had verified at least 150 such deaths and identified 101 servicemen accused of murdering, torturing or fatally punishing fellow troops, though the true number is thought to be far higher.

Witnesses claimed that commanders also ran financial extortion schemes in which commanders demanded payments from soldiers in exchange for avoiding suicide missions. 

Those who could not pay, or refused, were ‘zeroed’ – the army’s slang for being eliminated – and then sent on perilous assaults where they were expected to die.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied allegations of indiscipline among Russian troops, insisting that such problems are ‘rife’ within the Ukrainian army instead.

But Verstka’s report appears to be the most comprehensive evidence yet of systemic brutality within Russia’s own ranks – documenting executions, torture and deliberate killings of soldiers who refuse to obey orders.

The Independent outlet said it was able to identify name, rank, age, and unit for more than 60 of the 101 alleged perpetrators.

Most are mid-ranking officers in their 30s and 40s, many of them veterans of earlier Russian campaigns or transfers from penal battalions. 

Few, if any, have faced prosecution.

Initially most of the reports of internal executions came mainly from penal formations made up of ex-convicts recruited from prisons.

But Verstka’s database shows the practice has now spread to regular army units as a culture of impunity and the influx of former prisoners have ‘normalised violence’ across the front, the report says.

The outlet also obtained official data showing that Russia’s main military prosecutor’s office received nearly 29,000 complaints from soldiers and their families in the first half of 2025 alone – more than 12,000 relating to punishment inflicted by their own superiors.

A source inside the prosecutor’s office told Verstka there is an informal ban on investigating cases against commanders serving in combat zones.